


The moral value of miracles

by Tovarich



Series: Good Omens Celebration 2020 [10]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Good Omens Celebration 2020, M/M, Miracles, No Dialogue, Philosophy, The Arrangement (Good Omens)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:41:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24117427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tovarich/pseuds/Tovarich
Summary: Now, one could wonder how a demon, deprive from the Holy Grace of God, could still perform angelic miracles. The answer was rather simple. The truth was that no miracle was inherently good or evil, it was what they were used for that mattered.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Good Omens Celebration 2020 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1727137
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17
Collections: Good Omens Celebration





	The moral value of miracles

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt for the 10th day of the Good Omens Celebration was "Miracle".   
> I'm honestly not sure how my brain came up with this. I had started wondering how Crowley and Aziraphale felt about performing each other's miracles, and then my brain decided to add some moral philosophy to the mix.   
> Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy it.

It was a dark night, no moon in the sky, stars hidden under thick clouds. Crowley owed Aziraphale a favour, and so, he had come here to take care of the angel's assignment. It seemed to be a pretty simple mission; a landslide had filled the riverbed, making it impossible for the water to reach a small village. From what Aziraphale had told me, which wasn't much because nobody ever bothered to gave them a lot of details on their mission, there was a woman there who constantly did good deeds. Her soul was pure, and she would continue to make the world around her a better place. But since the water had stopped running in the river, the earth had dried and people would go hungry if the water didn't return soon.

_All this for a single woman in a single village when She drowned thousands in the Flood_ , Crowley thought bitterly at the irony of the situation. Aziraphale would tell him that it was ineffable, but Crowley wanted to understand, nonetheless. He couldn't deny that it felt good to perform angelic miracles once in a while. Being able to help others, make their lives a bit easier, a bit happier. Of course, he would never admit that to anyone else, they would call him nice. And Crowley definitely wasn't nice. He was many things, and he would even go as far as to admit some of these things were good, but nice wasn't one of them.

Now, one could wonder how a demon, deprive from the Holy Grace of God, could still perform angelic miracles. The answer was rather simple. The truth was that no miracle was inherently good or evil, it was what they were used for that mattered. An example might help understand this better; you could heal someone, which at first sight is good. But now, imagine that the person is a tyrant and that by healing them, you allowed them to keep on hurting and torturing and oppressing people. Conversely, imagine that you miracled a lethal dose of poison in someone's cup, but this person happens to be cruel, they're hurting people around them and they won't stop as long as they're alive. Then it isn't so clear which miracle was good and which one was evil. A deontologist would consider that the first miracle is good in itself while the second one is evil, because healing someone, no matter who they are, is always good and killing someone is always bad. A consequentialist, on the other hand, would think that the first one is bad and the second one is good, because the consequences of each miracle determines their moral value. It seemed that God leaned more on the consequentialist side, although there were some exceptions. There always were. But it isn't important here.

Anyway, Crowley was glad he could do good once in a while, even though nobody saw him. Aziraphale enjoyed performing demonic miracles too.

It could be tiring to always worry about whether what he did was the right thing, whether it was really good. Carrying out Crowley's missions were like a break from all his constant worries. In those moments, he was able to just cause mischief without feeling a ounce of guilt about it, because that was what was expected of him. It was liberating. Were angels supposed to enjoy doing bad deeds? Probably not, but after spending so much time around humans, Aziraphale had accepted that the line between good and evil was extremely blurry sometimes.

That night, Aziraphale had to tempt a young man into committing adultery. What was even better was that the boy had wanted to become a priest. Aziraphale should have hated this mission, but Crowley's voice echoed in his head : _You don't force them into anything, you just give them a light push in the desired direction. If they really don't want to do something, they'll resist, you'll just waste your time. They're the ones who take the decision, ultimately. They have free will, angel, that's why we can tempt them in the first place_. Aziraphale had to admit knowing this made him feel better. So much better in fact that he was even able to be amused by the irony of the situation: an angel tempting a pious man into sin, that was rather funny. He was curious to see how the young man would react, it was always a bit of a surprise; some of them almost didn't need being tempted at all while some others resisted to the point that it was impossible to make them change their minds.

Later, they would meet in an inn, halfway between where both their missions took place. They had started a little tradition of recounting how their respective assignments went. It was often a lot of fun, and it was an occasion to meet each other more often.


End file.
